Rumours awaken, and the village awaits a new hero. The dragons have not been seen for years, thought to have been destroyed after the last Great War between the dragons and the young races, but now there is talk of villages burning and prophecies that threaten to throw the world back into chaos.

Puzzle Quest 3 is the third game in the Puzzle quest series. The game was developed by Infinity Plus Two and published by 505 Games on 23rd March 2021. In Puzzle Quest 3, a new match-3 puzzle game, you play as an unnamed hero who will face this threat head-on with the help of your allies and quick planning on your part. Another exciting adventure that fits in your pocket, Puzzle Quest 3 is sure to delight puzzle and adventure lovers.

A Structure So Meticulously Arranged

After starting the game, you will choose between five different classes; the assassin succeeds in incapacitating the enemy before the final blow; the berserker can go into a rage where every blow becomes lethal; become a necromancer to master the magic of cold and death; become a shaman if you prefer poison and healing; Finally, paladin, noble knight, which is the class I chose. Each class has special skills and perks, so you can play the game however you like.

Then, throughout your journey, you’ll equip gear and spells to gain powerful attacks, increase your defences, and more. Gear and spells come in different rarities that can give you bonuses, such as power, that help you in battle, and if you have items you’re not using, you can save them to get more resources to keep upgrading what you have. Like any other game in the genre, you match 3 or more gems of the same colour in Puzzle Quest 3. But what sets it apart from games like Puzzles & Empires and Candy Crush is that you can do multiple matches simultaneously.

You get an initial 2-second timer to build up the matchup before attacking. Each match you make increases the timer allowing you to make more matches until time runs out or you run out of available matches. Joins can be made with standard horizontal and vertical strokes, but you can also make horizontal strokes. Each match you make fills the spell meter corresponding to the special ability at the bottom of the screen. When the meter is full, you can fire a devastating attack, gain power, or regenerate your health.

Great Character Building Scheme and Rewards System

The game consists of 15 chapters divided into ten parts. Amid a series of battles, your character engages in conversations with allies and other people you meet along the way as your story progresses. For the most part, the story is completely set up, but there are some points within the dialogue where you can choose how your character will respond. I don’t see it necessarily affecting how the story progresses, but it can be watched in future iterations to see if anything changes. After each series of battles, you are returned to the main game screen, where you can perform all the upgrades available to you, start side missions with your followers, and more.

Depending on how many moves you make during the fight, you get a chest of different values. Chests can be opened with keys, gems, or friends. Chests can contain any number of rare items and different perks depending on the chest (wood, metal, gold, or ruby chests). Sometimes opening chests give you more equipment, spells, and friends. Each chest also has a small slot to take a bonus key. 

Be careful, though, because the number of keys and gems is limited. Minions also have a timer, so you can’t open a minion’s chest until its timer runs out, at which point the minion must rest before being used again. If all else fails, you can also salvage the chest, but you won’t gain much. This bothered me a little because you also have a limit on how many chests you can wait to open, no more than 5, so if you both don’t have gems or keys and the chests are full, you’re stuck. Hurry to save the chest.

Interacting with NPCs and Online Friends

Recruit 15 allies, called friends, throughout the game, each with a special bonus or something to offer. One of your first friends is Toragon, who can make you a piece of armour that you can equip or salvage. Other backers can give you material bonuses or inventory support, and more. Your followers can also grow and increase their numbers to increase their benefits. You can also go on side quests with each of these followers to learn more about them while also earning money that helps you get more power for the main story. 

The game has the usual in-game network capabilities. You can choose to join or start a new kingdom (such as a guild or clan) where you can recruit other people to join for special missions and rewards. You can also have fun with friends outside your kingdom doing dungeons and missions together. At the moment, since the game is new, this area still seems empty, but there are already many people online that you can meet. If you are in a kingdom, winning a battle against another player rewards your kingdom with a certain number of artists that can be used for more resources and other things to support you and your people. 

Special Events and Levels to Watch Out For

There are other special events and competitions that you can participate in to climb the leaderboard and win some trophies. It looks like competitive seasons could also be on the way, as there is a ‘Seasons’ option that appears under the ‘World’ tab. On this page, you can see all the different things you can do between battles in the main story. Like almost every other game, the game has an in-game market where you can spend money to get more gems, keys, and more.

There are even different ‘services’ that you can buy. One is a VIP subscription that gives you daily gifts of gems, keys, and other useful items. There is also a Quest Pass, a battle pass system where you unlock levels by completing challenges. However, I feel that this pass is a bit overpriced. While most passes of this type cost around $10, this pass costs around $15. While I’m guilty of those micro-transaction purchases in the same games, I can’t say I’m a fan of them since they still follow more of a pay-to-win model. The game has online features to fight against other players, which can easily become a battle for the wallet.

Conclusion

Overall I loved Puzzle Quest 3. The game is well-made, plays well, and looks great. The level of detail given to the various characters, monsters, menus, and everything in between has to be appreciated, as it is very impressive. The game is easy to learn and good, there is no steep learning curve, and I think it is accessible to everyone. It’s also very easy to navigate. You don’t have to go far to find what you’re looking for because everything is well organized. The story and characters are so much fun to explore. This game is a great addition to my collection.